Dear Bates Families,
I hope you all stayed warm and safe in the storm today. I am writing this week to share with you some of the details of our ongoing work to ensure the safety of all of our students. Each school has detailed safety measures and protocols for all conceivable emergencies. As you probably know, we practice fire drills and general evacuations with our students. We also practice having students line up quickly from recess should we need to do this for our students’ safety. Our students always do an excellent job with these drills.
In addition, after school hours our faculty and staff practice other protocols with the support of the Wellesley Police and Fire Departments. These protocols include a response to an active shooter. The District has adopted the ALICE philosophy, and the staff at every school has been trained in this approach. We work with the Wellesley Police Department to annually review and enhance our training. At this time the District has decided not to practice these drills with students.
Two elementary schools, Fiske and Schofield, already have an updated security package in place as part of renovation projects recently completed. The funds to bring this same package to all remaining schools will go to Annual Town Meeting in early April. I have attached the details of this plan here. If funds are approved, we anticipate work on these security updates to begin this summer.
If you have questions about any of our safety measures, please call or email me anytime.
Please travel safely to school and work tomorrow.
Warm regards,
Toni Jolley
Upcoming dates:
Thursday, Feb. 16 All School Concert in the gym @ 9:00 a.m.
February 20 – 25 Winter Break
Thursday, March 2 Walk to School Day
Friday, March 3 Bates Spirit Day
Thursday, March 9 Bates in Bloom 8:45 – 9:30 a.m.